The disadvantage faced by many Aboriginal Territorians is widely known and governments are right to make tackling it a priority. But arbitrarily wrestling autonomy from the hands of local leaders is not the answer.

As Ironbark Aboriginal Corporation's Trevor Hutchinson says, "a fair day's work is a fair day's play" and indigenous Australians are just as entitled to a cold beer at the end of a hard day's work as the rest of us.

Graphic of where dry and alcohol restricted communities are in the NT.

If individual communities decide they're better off without grog then they should be empowered to enforce that ban but it's time we stopped treating Aboriginal people like children and let them make their own decisions.

If community leaders believe banning the booze is only going to make things worse, they should be free to make that decision also.

Whether the Intervention was justified 12 years ago will always be a contentious issue but the time has now come for this measure to at least be reviewed.